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Man charged in connection to heroin bust in 2011

A 29-year-old Juneau man has been charged with aiding and abetting possession of heroin with the intent to deliver.

Gregory O. Brown Jr. had his first court appearance on Wednesday in Juneau Superior Court. Judge Philip Pallenberg entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Brown was indicted on Dec. 28 on one count of second-degree aiding and abetting the possession and intended delivery of heroin on Feb. 14, 2011. That’s a class ‘A’ felony that can carry up to 20 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

On that date in 2011, local, state and federal law enforcement officers intercepted a drug mule at the Juneau International Airport who was transporting 39 grams of heroin worth about $39,000 from Portland to Juneau, police said at the time.

The mule, Madelyn Brooks, then 22, has since pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge, and she was sentenced in April 2012 to serve one year in rehab in lieu of jail time.

During Wednesday’s hearing, District Attorney David Brower requested Brown’s bail be set at $10,000 cash, citing a 2011 DUI case wherein Brown failed to appear in court, a misdemeanor offense. Both those DUI and failure to appear cases are still open and pending in court.

Pallenberg declined to set the bail amount that high and instead set it at $2,500, half appearance, half performance. Pallenberg also appointed the Public Defender Agency to represent Brown.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday.

Electronic court records show Brown was previously convicted of a drug charge in 2004 and received a suspended jail sentence of three years. He ended up serving two years of that sentence when he was found guilty of violating probation, according to records.